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Top prospect Correa out for season after fibula surgery

Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow talks about the extent of Carlos Correa's injury and the surgery that will end his Minor League season

By Brian McTaggart
/
MLB.com |

HOUSTON -- Astros top prospect Carlos Correa will be out for the rest of the season after undergoing surgery Wednesday to repair a fracture of his fibula just above his right ankle, general manager Jeff Luhnow said.

Correa, the dynamic 19-year-old shortstop taken with the top pick in the 2012 First-Year Player Draft out of Puerto Rico, sustained the injury Saturday night while sliding into third base on an RBI triple playing for Class A Lancaster in Lake Elsinore, Calif.

Luhnow said the surgery, which was arthroscopic, went well and he doesn't expect there to be any long-term effects.

Correa won't be able to put any weight on the leg for four weeks and will be in a boot afterwards. It's unclear when he'll be able to return to baseball activities, but the team is hopeful he can be available in October to play in the Arizona Fall League or winter ball in November.

"We'll have to see how the rehab goes," Luhnow said. "It's obviously unfortunate. He's one of our top young players in the game, losing this amount of time, but we are optimistic he's going to return to 100 percent and will back on the field with us ready to keep doing what he's doing."

What Correa was doing was tearing up the Minor Leagues. He was hitting .325 with six homers and 57 RBIs in 62 games for Lancaster, with an on-base percentage of .416 and an OPS of .926, putting him line to be promoted to Double-A Corpus Christi later this year.

It was expected that Correa would come to Spring Training next year competing for a spot on the Major League club.

"I talked to him several times over the past few days and he's taking it about as well as any young man can take it," Luhnow said. "It's the first time he's been injured. He did a lot of research, we talked to several doctors. His parents are here supporting him and he went into this with a very good attitude. He's determined to work as hard as he can on his rehab and get back as soon as he can.

"Obviously, we're going to probably have to slow him down a little bit because we want him to heal as well as he can. And with a player like that, he's always going to want to push the envelope, so we're going to have to figure that out. He understands this is the nature of professional baseball and he needs to work twice as hard to get back to where he was."

Correa played the entire 2013 season at Class A Quad Cities at 18 years old and was impressive. He hit .320 with 33 doubles, nine homers, 86 RBIs and a .405 on-base percentage. Despite being the second-youngest player in the league, he led the Midwest League in OPS (.872), while ranking second in on-base percentage and third in batting average.